Toll-free Verification: The SMS Industry Change You Can’t Ignore

If you use a toll-free number to text your customers, an industry-wide change requires you to “verify” your number.

A toll-free number is one that starts with 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844 or 833. And whether you’re a SimpleTexting customer, or you use another texting service, or you’re just thinking about getting started with texting — we’re here to help you make the smoothest transition possible. 

The alternative? If your number isn’t fully verified, you won’t be able to send messages as quickly (or as many of them). Yes, seriously. Mobile carriers are currently placing limits on toll-free traffic, and those limits will increase until you’ve submitted your verification form.

So we’re pulling out all the stops to get you verified as quickly as possible to help you avoid that.

Why is This Happening?

Let’s state the obvious: no one likes changes like this. But there’s some upside here. Verifying your toll-free number will help you:

• Experience smoother message delivery
• Help your messages be delivered on time
• Keep your return on investment rolling

You’ve probably seen, or even experienced, that reaching customers over email has gotten more challenging due to deliverability changes and engagement challenges.

This update within the SMS industry will help ensure texting maintains strong deliverability in a channel with 98% open rates. It also means your customers can trust the messages you send them.

And because this is an industry thing vs. just a SimpleTexting thing, we want to help regardless of whether you’re one of our customers. Helping businesses do more of the good stuff, avoid the bad stuff, and engage customers on their terms is what SimpleTexting is all about. 

Recommended reading: Current Texting and SMS Marketing Statistics

How We’re Guiding the Way for Your Business and Others  

So, what does “helping you master toll-free verification” mean?

Opt-in Method Guide

First, if you haven’t already done so, we’ll help you conquer the all-important customer opt-in process with helpful tutorials, options and best practices.

Opt-in mastery is step 1A — you won’t make it through the verification process without a clear description of how you’re getting your customers’ consent to message them.

📖 Read now: SMS opt-in methods guide

Verification Form Guide

Second, we’re helping you get out ahead of this process. The verification process includes a potentially lengthy review process by industry partners, so our goal is to guide you through getting your registration form filled out correctly as soon as you choose your toll-free number. 

We’ve also put together a handy guide to understanding what a successful form entry looks like. While our form is specific to SimpleTexting customers, the information we request is fairly universal. It’ll give you a great leg up on working with whoever your texting platform provider is.

Note: Once you get your toll-free number set up, you’ll have limited message throughput until you’re verified (usually a few weeks).

📖Read now: Toll-free Verification Form Guide

Toll-free & SMS Industry Updates

We’re not going to let this slip your radar until you’re good to go 😊. Our customers will hear from us regularly over email and in-app, with friendly reminders and nudges up until they take action.

Our goal is to keep your texting game as strong as ever, with as little interruption as possible, and on terms that bring great communications to your customers and awesome value to your business.

Questions? Tap the blue chat box in the bottom right corner to speak with our team.